Meh. All I did in High School was go to Phish concerts and get high. But because I was into music, I studied piano very seriously, and I even (shock) practiced, because I wanted to get better. And so I got better and had various nice accomplishments to tell colleges about. My grades were acceptable, but not great, and neither were my SAT scores.

But I got into every single school I applied to, including: University of Chicago, NYU, Northwestern, and most importantly, my 1st choice and alma mater: Oberiln. Oddly, none of those schools cared that I wasn't top of my class, nor did they care that my SAT score was like 1000 (they used a 1600 scale back in my day.) This tells me there must have been something else defective about her application.

GAT_00:FloydA: ambassador_ahab: This tells me there must have been something else defective about her application.

Its author.

Since the WSJ is on her side, I expect she acted like a privileged little biatch and demanded admittance.

Well she is white and some minorities were accepted before her so obviously this is the fault of the liberal east coast elitist mindset that prevails amongst our nations institutions of higher learning

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

unlikely:ambassador_ahab: GAT_00: I expect she acted like a privileged little biatch and demanded admittance.

She should have tried the "I kind of suck and you probably shouldn't admit me, but just in case..."

I did that for a couple of grad programs and got admission letters from places I couldn't afford.Sucks to be me I guess.

Harvard realized this long ago: if you only take the best, the suicide rate is prohibitively high. So take some average students with good extracurriculars who also have the balls to apply to Harvard with anything below a 4.0. They'll happily take average grades, and some of them perform very well in college environments.

Of course, this is less true these days I think because nobody really curves.

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

ambassador_ahab:Meh. All I did in High School was go to Phish concerts and get high. But because I was into music, I studied piano very seriously, and I even (shock) practiced, because I wanted to get better. And so I got better and had various nice accomplishments to tell colleges about. My grades were acceptable, but not great, and neither were my SAT scores.

But I got into every single school I applied to, including: University of Chicago, NYU, Northwestern, and most importantly, my 1st choice and alma mater: Oberiln. Oddly, none of those schools cared that I wasn't top of my class, nor did they care that my SAT score was like 1000 (they used a 1600 scale back in my day.) This tells me there must have been something else defective about her application.

WTF? Whose dick did you suck to get into these schools?

A decent piano player and a 1000 SAT will not get you into any of these schools. Unless you went to Julliard or played at Carnegie Hall. Hell, even then you would have had a hard time.

GAT_00:unlikely: ambassador_ahab: GAT_00: I expect she acted like a privileged little biatch and demanded admittance.

She should have tried the "I kind of suck and you probably shouldn't admit me, but just in case..."

I did that for a couple of grad programs and got admission letters from places I couldn't afford.Sucks to be me I guess.

Harvard realized this long ago: if you only take the best, the suicide rate is prohibitively high. So take some average students with good extracurriculars who also have the balls to apply to Harvard with anything below a 4.0. They'll happily take average grades, and some of them perform very well in college environments.

Of course, this is less true these days I think because nobody really curves.

The one that blew my mind was when my "open application" to Oxford got me offers from Trinity and Queen's. I didn't apply to Harvard... probably should have, in retrospect. :-)

GAT_00:unlikely: ambassador_ahab: GAT_00: I expect she acted like a privileged little biatch and demanded admittance.

She should have tried the "I kind of suck and you probably shouldn't admit me, but just in case..."

I did that for a couple of grad programs and got admission letters from places I couldn't afford.Sucks to be me I guess.

Harvard realized this long ago: if you only take the best, the suicide rate is prohibitively high. So take some average students with good extracurriculars who also have the balls to apply to Harvard with anything below a 4.0. They'll happily take average grades, and some of them perform very well in college environments.

Of course, this is less true these days I think because nobody really curves.

Her listed of supposed "required" attributes were a mere one varsity letter higher than my resume coming out of HS. I had this odd sense at that age that I had to apply myself to stand out. Thank you, parents for lighting a fire under me.

If her rich parents never made her get off her ass and be anything more than a FB surfer, then yeah they get plenty of blame, too. They do have nice taste in home design, I'll give them that.

To those claiming that I am bitter-you bet I am! An underachieving selfish teenager making excuses for her own failures? That too! To those of you disgusted by this, shocked that I take for granted the wonderful gifts I have been afforded, I say shhhh-"The Real Housewives" is on.

NuttierThanEver:GAT_00: FloydA: ambassador_ahab: This tells me there must have been something else defective about her application.

Its author.

Since the WSJ is on her side, I expect she acted like a privileged little biatch and demanded admittance.

Well she is white and some minorities were accepted before her so obviously this is the fault of the liberal east coast elitist mindset that prevails amongst our nations institutions of higher learning

Colleges tell you, "Just be yourself." That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself!

Who the hell is she quoting when she says people advised her to "be yourself" in order to get into a college? Did the WSJ publish her letter just so we could make fun of her? Either way, it's hilarious.

I had no extracurricular activities and never took my SATs and I still got into a respectable college. You know why? I did the smart thing and went to a community college the first 2 yrs. Having a college degree before applying to a larger university makes you look good without having to pump your application with a bunch of BS. No SAT required.

My gpa was so bad in HS the college advisor laughed her ass off when I asked what my options were. I did pretty well on my SATs but to this day I imagine someone with the same name as I died during the admission process and they accidentally accepted me.

You're a white girl from a privileged background. You didn't have outstanding grades, test scores, didn't have accomplishments in extra-curricular activities or elsewhere outside of school.

And now you didn't get into your first choice dream college. Probably got right into all kinds of good schools, but not the elite college of your dreams.Clearly, the blame must be placed on affirmative action, and anyone who values diversity. Minorities, gays, etc... too bad you aren't any of those things. I'm sure your attitude and work ethic would have carried you much further if you had those "advantages", you know, they just give those people things for nothing.

And of course it gets published in the WSJ. Reads like pretty much every other argument against affirmative action or diversity considerations. Scalia will probably cite it in his opinion on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. Hoping it will be in the dissent... but probably won't be.

FTFA:In fact, the one notorious aspect of college admissions that virtually no one ever praises openly-the preferential treatment given to legacy applicants who are admitted to schools because of familial connections-Suzy Lee Weiss doesn't touch in herWall Street Journal piece.

Perhaps her sister Bari Weiss, a former Wall Street Journal editorial features editor, talked her out of it.